No abstract

Semi-Arid Tropical (SAT) regions are influenced by climate change impacts affecting the rainfed crops in their productivity and production. Water Footprint (WF) assessment for rainfed crops on watershed scale is critical for water resource planning, development, efficient crop planning, and, better water use efficiency. A semi-arid tropical watershed was selected in lower Krishna river basin having a 4700 ha area in Telangana, India. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to estimate the water balance components of watershed like runoff, potential evapotranspiration, percolation, and effective rainfall for base period (1994 to 2013) and different climate change scenarios of Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5 for the time periods of 2020, 2050 and 2080. Green and blue WF of rainfed crops viz., maize, sorghum, groundnut, redgram and cotton were performed by considering rainfed, and two critical irrigations (CI) of 30mm and 50mm. It indicated that the effective rainfall (ER) is less than crop evapo-transpiration (ET) during crop growing period under different RCPs, time periods, and base period. The green WF under rainfed condition over different RCPs and time periods had decreasing trend for all crops. The study suggested that in the rainfed agro-ecosystems, the blue WF can significantly reduce the total WF by enhancing the productivity through critical irrigation management using on farm water resources developed through rainwater harvesting structures. The maximum significant reduction in WF over the base period was observed 13–16% under rainfed, 30–32% with 30 mm CI and 40–42% with 50 mm CI by 2080. Development of crop varieties particularly in oilseeds and pulses which have less WF and higher yields for unit of water consumed could be a solution for improving overall WF in the watersheds of SAT regions.

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a set of metabolic disorders and is considered as a predictor of cardiovascular risks. The expression of several specific genes and the related protein products also show their significance in pathophysiology of Metabolic Syndrome. Secreted Frizzled Related Protein 4 is a product of expression of SFRP4 genes. SFRP4 has been linked with inflammatory responses quite similar to the responses as in metabolic syndrome pathogenesis. Aim: The current study aimed to assess the circulatory level of Secreted Frizzled Related Protein 4 among metabolic syndrome individuals. Method: Estimation of SFRP4 was done by ELISA technique by using Human SFRP4 ELISA kit (Make- Bioassay Technology Laboratory, Cat no- E2327Hu, Zeijhang, China). Results: Mean concentration of serum SFRP4 in Metabolic Syndrome subjects (2.06 ± 1.39 ng/ml) was significantly higher than the mean concentration of healthy controls (1.28 ± 1.29 ng/ml)  (p< 0.05 *). Conclusion: A significant correlation of serum SFRP4 level with Fasting blood glucose and HbA1c seen in the findings of this study puts on an extra contribution to consider this protein as a potential Biomarker for Type II Diabetes Mellitus.

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